Building habits is easier when you understand the science behind them. And there are some good apps that can help.
All posts in design
I’ve been heads down with our team getting Conveyor ready for a launch. And most of my work is writing. When you write copy for a product, you quickly come to realize how massive an effort this is — and just how much copy is required. Tracking all your work and changes is not an easy task. And so I’ve been keeping an eye out for people describing their own writing practices of guidelines. As UX Writer is relatively new as a career choice, there’s not yet a lot of material to be found. Oh, you c…
Isaac Smith released issue #2 of the Frontier Journal. Like issue #1, there are some great articles. But I most enjoyed the Fuel for the Frontier part — it reminds me a lot of a digest email (like this one). He covers a number of topics, but the portion at the end was the best. Issac shares how using analog tools has been a help, but he can still find himself slipping into reactive mode once he gets in front of the computer. A small change has helped: > A subtle but significant difference. Ins…
When well designed, AI and timely reminders can help us develop better habits.
There used to be a time when Apple keynotes got me almost as excited as Christmas morning. I’d immediately dig into all the updates coming to OS X (nee macOS) and write about it in the weeks following. Now, I barely know the new features that come out with each new release of Apple’s macOS or iOS. That’s partly due to my stage of life (aka I’m old). But it’s also because after Lion (maybe Mountain Lion) I realized I rarely used the new stuff that became available each year. And maybe that trend…
Medium’s claps and Basecamp’s boosts. These are two items that feel like the creators have gone and ignored Steve Krug’s advice from his excellent book [https://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html]. Both features went from a very straightforward use case to one that caused me to pause and ponder. I talked a little about Medium’s change from hearts to claps last summer (Vol IV Issue 23 [http://email.chrisbowler.com/t/ViewEmailArchive/j/6420AF4A5569BAF32540EF23F30FEDED/C67FD2F38AC4859C/] to be exact), so…
I shared a couple of weeks back about gaming in our home [https://chrisbowler.com/journal/gaming]. Part of that essay was focused on how much I (and my kids) are enjoying Breath of the Wild. This article from late 2017 does such a nice job of summing up why it’s such an enjoyable game. > The vast majority of open-world games are actually very linear in terms of their core progression, with a series of primary story beats that have to be played through in order. Prior Zelda games were much the s…
How does a company change public perception? Will Dropbox be able to move from being a utility to a collaborative tool for creative teams?